Florida ends HOV lanes as paid express lanes take over

Florida ends HOV lanes as paid express lanes take over

It's official: Florida's High Occupancy Vehicle lanes are a thing of the past. Once a means of reducing congestion by granting preference to carpools and vehicles carrying more than one person, HOV lanes were gradually overtaken by express lanes, which drivers pay a toll to access through their SunPass accounts.

Florida hits the brakes on HOV lanes

HOV lanes are no more in Florida. Drivers of hybrid and electric vehicles will still get a pass on express lanes for a while, though. A new law that went to effect Tuesday eliminates high occupancy traffic lanes throughout the state. There were about 50 miles of highways with that designation. Most of those miles were in South Florida, including I-95 express lanes in Broward County. The designation reserved the lanes for cars and trucks carrying…